Ice-cream van chimes: the sound of the British summer
The thin, peculiar jingle of the ice-cream van will play for longer, thanks to the relaxation of government regulations. Will you welcome extended plays of Greensleeves and Waltzing Matilda?
Ice-cream van: 'The distinctive tinniness of the chime is largely regarded with affection.' Photograph: Rob Cousins/Alamy
The low, sweet call of the woodpigeon; the distant sound of leather on willow; the thin, peculiar song of the ice-cream van playing Greensleeves through the warm, child-cluttered streets of a housing estate; of these is the distinctive sound of a British summer made.
And now, at long last, the British summer may bloom louder and longer. For, 31 long years since its seminal work Code of Practice on Noise From Ice Cream Vans Etc was published, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has finally agreed to
relax the country's chime regulations.
In a move that has brought jubilation to the ice-cream industry, chimes can play for up to 12 seconds rather than four; and once every two minutes, instead of three. Vans may also now chime while stationary.
It is, says Steve Verrill, a spokesman for the
Ice Cream Alliance, which represents 650 different ice-cream companies: "a welcome loosening of the red tape". The regulations, he says, "were quite draconian and outdated" and took little account of the sheer joy spread by the sound of the ice-cream van. "Just this morning, I was speaking to an ice-cream van owner from Scarborough who had initially chosen to forgo a chime on his van," he adds. "But he said he would turn up at events and the children would be so disappointed there was no chime on his van that he had to get one. The chimes are a great feature – it means there's a nice treat coming your way."
The earliest chimes were operated like a music box and fitted with a magnetic pickup and amplifier. It wasn't until 1958 that transistors transformed the van chime, along with amplifiers that could be fitted to the vehicle's battery. Traditional British ice-cream vans have tended to use Grampian Horn loudspeakers, angled downwards, towards the road, to diffuse the sound, and though the technology has improved sound quality, the distinctive tininess of the ice-cream van's call is largely regarded with affection.
Most of the country's 5,000 ice-cream van chimes are made by MicroMiniatures in Staffordshire, which for 25 years has offered the most technologically advanced chimes (most are now digital) and an extensive range of tunes, from Jerusalem to The Stripper, via Nessun Dorma, Cherry Ripe and Waltzing Matilda.
"Our most popular chimes are O Sole Mio, Greensleeves and Match of the Day," says the company's Rich Lister. "We also provide a service to have custom chimes, so if the customer wants a particular song or their own jingle we can put this on to a chime. Most recently, we have produced Soul Limbo (the Test Match Cricket theme) and Amarillo of Tony Christie & Peter Kay fame."
John Bonar of Piccadilly Whip took over the family ice-cream van business from his uncles. Today the firm operates at 15 licensed pitches around London, including the Tower of London and Westminster Bridge, selling fresh-mix softee ice-cream with "sauces, nuts, the sprinkles, waffle cones … all of that". He is, he says, delighted by the relaxation of chime regulations. "If you can only play it for four seconds people down the street won't hear it," he explains.
His vans are all Whitby Morrison built, some modern, some classic, but all play the Pied Piper tune. "We've just always used the Pied Piper since the start, so all the vans we order come with that tune," he explains. And does he ever tire of hearing it? "Ohhh," he laughs, "you get pretty sick of it. But whatever tune you'd have you'd get pretty tired of it."
Posted by
Laura Barton
Friday 12 July 2013 16.05 BST
The Guardian
